Some stereoscopic image viewing devices (simply referred to below as viewing devices) generally called 3D eyeglasses or 3D glasses support active system and some support passive system.
In the active system, a right-eye image and a left-eye image are displayed on a display device, such as a television, while being alternatingly switched therebetween, and liquid crystal shutters or suchlike disposed on right and left lens portions of a viewing device are alternatingly opened/closed in synchronization with switching of images on the display device (see Patent Literature 1).
Display devices used with the active system are structured approximately in the same manner as conventional display devices, and simply using stereoscopic image data as image data to be displayed on the display devices allows stereoscopic image viewing.
On the other hand, in the passive system, right-eye and left-eye images are simultaneously displayed line-by-line on the display device, and in the display device, a polarizing filter sorts the images for the right eye and the left eye. Then, the sorted images are respectively delivered to the right eye and the left eye through specialized eyeglasses. Accordingly, in the passive system, 3D images could not be properly viewed unless the images are viewed generally in front of the display device, and since the right-eye and left-eye images are displayed on one screen at the same time, the resolution is low. Therefore, for viewing on a household television, the active stereoscopic image viewing system is preferable for users.
However, in the active system, the viewing device is required to include liquid-crystal light shutters and a power source for driving them, so that the viewing device becomes heavier and bulkier than normal eyeglasses. Therefore, many users feel discomfort with wearing the viewing device.